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The Golden Girls, which aired from 1985 to 1992 and won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series, wasn't writer Susan Harris's first hit. Prior to giving 'birth' to Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Blanche (Rue McClanahan), Rose (Betty White), and Sophia (Estelle Getty), she wrote for Love, American Style; All in the Family; and Maude, which also starred Arthur and McClanahan. She also created Soap in 1977, one of the first prime time shows to feature a leading gay character, played by Billy Crystal. After the success of The Golden Girls, the Mount Vernon, N.Y., native went on to create its spin-offs Empty Nest and the ill-fated The Golden Palace with her production company, Witt/Thomas/Harris. Harris largely retired from television in 1991.
Today the mother of five and grandmother of four resides in Los Angeles with her husband of 27 years, producer Paul Junger Witt. Having won countless awards, including the Paddy Chayefsky Television Laurel Award, the Writer's Guild's highest award for television writing, Harris is still surprised about how revered The Golden Girls remains today. Just weeks away from her 70th birthday, she chatted with Out about the show's 25th anniversary.
Out: Can you believe it's been 25 years since The Golden Girls premiered?
Susan Harris: No, I can't. In fact, I didn't know it until you told us.
Is it true that your husband, Paul, came home and said, 'There's this idea, but you're not going to want to do it,' and your response was 'That's right, I don't want to do anything, but what is it?'
No, what had happened was he had gone to the network with another writer and another idea, and the network didn't want to do whatever it was he went with and said, 'We have an idea. We thought maybe a series about older women who live in Miami.' The writer that Paul was with said, 'Oh, I'm not really interested.' Paul said, 'I think I know somebody who might be.'
But you had told your husband that you had quit television, right?
I had told him prior to that I had retired. I didn't want to do television anymore. Then he came home and said 'Older women in Miami,' and I said, 'Of course. Yes.'
What were those initial moments of being involved with the show like?
What I thought was older women, the network and I were not on the same page at the time. I thought older women -- 60, 70, 80. Older to the network seemed to mean 40-50. We casted the way we did, and we never discussed age.
What was your process for developing the characters?
The process is always the same, and it's something that's very hard to describe. We sat around and we talked. I really can't tell you how these ideas come up. I'm not intentionally trying to make it mysterious. You just do it. You draw in all walks of life from people you've met. I know one of the characters, Dorothy, I gave her Bea Arthur's voice [when I was writing]. This was before we had any casting in mind. Not that I thought we were ever going to get Bea Arthur, but it was just her voice and her tone that I had in mind. It's much easier for me to write when I can think of somebody. I always try to have an actor in mind, even though it's never going to be that actor. We were lucky enough to get Bea.
Are any of the characters modeled after someone in your life?
I would say there's a bit of my grandmother in Sophia.
All of the ladies have talked about how fantastic that first script was. They said they just knew it was going to be a hit show. Did you know it was going to be a hit?
I think it was Bruce Paltrow (television and film director and producer and father of Gwyneth Paltrow), who was with us and saw it at the upfronts, which was called "selling season" back then. He said, 'You've done the perfect pilot.' That was the only pilot they screened then for the buyers. They would choose only one pilot and show it in its entirety. The reaction in that room -- you just knew. You knew that you had a hit.
How long did it take you to write the pilot script?
I think it was the customary length of time, which is a few months. Of course you're talking about 25 years ago, and the fact that I remember anything is a miracle! We'll take it from there because last week is hard enough to come up with.
The show dealt with some heavy issues through the years. Was that a conscious decision?
We liked to tackle -- not outrageous issues -- but important issues. Things that I knew that people went through that hadn't been addressed on television. We did the same thing on Soap.
Speaking of Soap, you said that was your favorite show. Why?
I'll tell you why and what I meant. I didn't mean that it was my favorite. I meant that the form that it took -- the fact that you didn't have to tell a full story every week in 23 minutes and didn't have to have a beginning, middle, and end -- as a writer was such an enormous luxury. You could just have a story that never ended and could include scenes of just good talk. It was a luxury for me as a writer and for the actors. In 23 minutes, everything has to serve the plot. You can't spend time developing characters. Soap gave me that. I hate to lick a story more than anything in the world. I can't do it. I have a terrible story mind. As a writer, this was so much easier. That's why I said it was my favorite.
Let's talk about one of those episodes of The Golden Girls that dealt with a serious issue. It was the season premiere of the fifth season, which you wrote. The episode was called 'Sick and Tired,' and it focused on Dorothy getting chronic fatigue syndrome. That is something you suffered from. Does it still affect you today?
Yeah, it does. It's something that some people get over and others don't. I'm better now than I was -- much better than I was. For example, I used to be a runner, but I had to stop. Now I'm a walker. It's that kind of difference.
So many young people love this show. They can quote all of the lines.
Why do you think that is?
That's what I want to ask you!
I think number 1 it's funny. Secondly, I think this explains the wide appeal. I think everybody -- including younger people -- when they reach an age when they feel alienated, the thought of being alone and spending your life alone is terrifying. These women were at an age where they were alone and were likely to stay alone until they found each other. Then they constructed a family that really, really worked. They encouraged each other and had a life together. It showed that you didn't need the customary, traditional relationship to be happy. It paints a picture of all the possibilities for family. I also think young people like Sophia because she says whatever pops into her head!
Do you ever think The Golden Girls ever jumped the shark?
Ugh ' [long pause] Now, I didn't stay with the show. I was in and out for three years. After my experience with Soap it was too exhausting, and I just couldn't put myself through that again. Then I had a baby to raise. There was a period when I saw a few shows, and I told Paul I thought it had lost its touch with reality. It got silly. I don't know if the audience felt that way, but for me, it jumped my personal shark, which was keeping it real. Keeping the women real. Not joke machines.
What comes to mind when you hear the words The Golden Palace?
I think that lasted what, one year?
Listen, it didn't work. Bea was really missed. Looking back, we were trying to keep it alive because The Golden Girls was a wonderful show, but without Bea and in another form, we should've left it alone.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications said that you 'changed the face of television comedy.' What are your thoughts on that statement?
I don't think I did. I didn't know they had said that. I think they are misinformed. I think Norman Lear did. Absolutely. Norman changed comedy from being about silly people -- women who burned the pot roast -- into something that was real. You could really relate to the characters. There were important things to talk about and important things going on in their lives. It made it possible for me to do what I did after that.
And you worked on the Norman Lear show Maude, which starred Bea Arthur. You wrote the historic episode titled 'Maude's Dilemma,' in which Maude had an abortion. Were you worried about the aftermath of that episode when you were writing it?
No, I'm never worried about those things. I wrote what I wanted to write. At first the episode was going to be about Maude's friend, Vivian, played by Rue [McClanahan]. When I wrote it, Norman said, 'This is much too good to give to Vivian. This has to be for Maude.' I do remember that there were no sponsors for that show at all. Absolutely no advertisers.
TV has come so far. What do you think of the shows today?
You know, I never watch them. I watch news. If I watch any series, it's on cable.
Do you still write?
I'm starting to write again.
What do you think The Golden Girls' legacy will be?
Well, it's been keeping people happy for 25 years and hopefully it will keep them happy for another 25. To me it's amazing that it has been 25 years.
And how about this resurgence of Betty White?
Isn't that wonderful? It's well deserved. There's nobody nicer. She's an amazing talent, but there is nobody nicer than Betty White. She was an absolute joy to work with.
After everything you've done, what are you the most proud of?
My kids. I know it has nothing to do with what you're doing, but that's it.
What's your favorite Golden Girls episode? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Sorry for off topic - But how old are guys generally with this? Maybe someone could PM me
I had it when I was 18. But a very mild form of my pois started when I was 16. Then it became as it is now when I was 24. Maybe the vaccine aggravated the situation
Quote from: poisioq on June 09, 2013, 07:18:04 AMI had it when I was 18. But a very mild form of my pois started when I was 16. Then it became as it is now when I was 24. Maybe the vaccine aggravated the situationEven atibiotics could trigger it.
[Posted by new forum member, "yasienhossam", representing medical researchers who sign this posted letter. Posted Letter addressed to Dr. Marcel Waldinger]Dear Prof Waldinger, It has given us great honor when the editors of F1000 Research had told us that you will be one of the reviewers of our paper but we were astonished when we read your response which said that you refused our work that was accepted (with reservation) by the other 3 referees. We think and feel that it was not fair enough. Actually we respect your own opinion but we are surprised!; how it comes to reject a case report of POIS (the rare disease) and say that you encourage publication in that topic?!. Is it related to what you think that; the idea of atopy may be a precipitating factor for POIS is yours and not ours ?!. We think that this is not true. This is because we discovered our case by the end of 2009 and at that time you have only one publication in 2002- in which you didn't refer at all to atopy. We have found that our patient is atopic and in addition to the cognitive and body pains he feels post orgasmic; his atopy flares up eye irritation with severe body itching. By December 2009 and after preparing the report and before its publication we sent you 3 e-mails with about one week intervals, by the full length paper to ask you your experience as the only reporter of this syndrome - at that time - but sadly enough we didn't receive any reply. Please, return back to your archive. Moreover; in 2010; we shared the ISSM forum by this case report also before you mention at all any relation of POIS to atopy - you mentioned it only in your publication at 2011 - and many of our colleagues who are ISSM members shared by comments and discussion ; we remember that one of them was Prof. David Goldmeier. Please go back to the ISSM Forum 2010. This case report was presented as a poster in the 20th World Congress for Sexual Health, held in June 12- 16, 2011, Glasgow, UK , and published in its proceedings . For the before mentioned reasons we think that; it is ours and not yours that; atopy may be a precipitating factor for POIS and we must ask about and check for it in any of POIS cases.Our Dear Dr Waldinger, in your reply one of the reasons for which you refused our case report -as you stated - is that we mentioned that; NSAIDs, tramadol and SSRIs may help and you didn't find any response to these drugs. We want to remind you that this is not our findings but the references mentioned and our patient didn?t get any benefit from trying these drugs; please you can read our case report again !.What we feel very important and we want to discuss is the skin prick test as a diagnostic test for allergy. Do you think that it is a reliable one in this regard? is it enough to reach the final conclusion that POIS patients are allergic to their own semen and that this is the cause of POIS?. Basically; we know - and it is scientifically proved - that this test has many false positive and negative results. Moreover; we as andrologists ; knew - and it is scientifically proved as well that; our semen is foreign for our body and our immune system. Immunologic tolerance to it is not present as it formed only after our puberty where the immune system didn't identify it in utero. For this reason our God totally separated it from our immune system by what is well known now as the very competent Blood Testis barrier that is formed by the highly efficient Sertoli Sertoli cell junctional complex. It is not - as you mentioned on you tube - a hypothetical membrane. Only in certain known pathologic conditions this barrier may be broken. If occurred we form auto-antibodies against our semen. So; when we inject our own semen intradermaly we will react positively to it as it is a foreign antigen for us. Please try to apply this very simple prick test for you and your assistants using your own semen; mostly you will get a positive reaction without having POIS. Moreover; if we suppose that; allergy to the patient's own semen is the cause of POIS; it was mandatory to measure serum and seminal plasma anti-sperm antibodies; IgA, IgG and IgM, to do immuno bead and MAR testing and to report on the patient's seminogram changes as in such cases ? if this is true - POIS patients will be mostly infertile as well. So; as you depended only upon the unreliable skin prick test and for the afore mentioned scientific facts, we - and we think that we will be shared by anyone who is interested in andrology - think that; your conclusion is not right and we can't scientifically accept that the cause of POIS is allergy to own semen. Dear Prof, we are surprised; how it comes that; only from two patients ? without placebo control ? wants us to accept that; hyposensitization using the patient's own semen is the treatment of POIS!. Although your last two papers are published in a highly respectable journal we are sorry to say that; this is not right from the scientific facts mentioned above and they are only two patients. We think that; any benefit if any is not more than placebo. Thanks, Prof. Dr Abdalla attia & Dr Hossam YasienAndrology Unit,Faculty of Medicine,Minoufiya University,Egypt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =yasienhossam, thank you for your excellent questioning!I hope Waldinger will respond.Best regards,Demops - contact infoProf. dr. Marcel D. email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation: Connecting the Pipe Nebula to the bright star Antares is a flowing dark cloud nicknamed the Dark River. The murkiness of the Dark River is caused by absorption of background starlight by dust, although the nebula contains mostly hydrogen and molecular gas. Antares, the bright star that appears yellow just below the center of the frame, is embedded in the colorful Rho Ophiuchi nebula clouds. The Dark River, pictured above across the upper left, spans over 20 times the angular diameter of the Moon and lies about 500 light years distant. Other types of nebulas visible here include red emission nebula and the blue reflection nebula.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
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NASA Official: Phillip Newman
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Tags Crooked cops
Tag: crooked cops
Crooked laws, crooked cops
Crooked laws, crooked cops – they all need 2 be stopped. It's a shame, a shame how they getting away wit' murder, wit' no blame. RIP Kenneth Harding, James Earl Rivera, Derrick Gaines, Oscar Grant, Alan Blueford, Jason Smith, Kendrec McDade, Christian Gomez and all the brothas and sistas who have lost their precious lives to this rotten system and their minions. You are not forgotten.


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Walang Hiya... Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice, edited by Lolan Buhain Sevilla and Roseli Ilano, features poetry and short fiction from 32 emerging Filipino and Filipino-American writers in a commitment to using the narrative as a departure point for personal and political transformation. Walang Hiya, a term that has traditionally been used to shame has been reclaimed through this body of work to examine the taboo in our communities with fresh, honest, and unflinching voices.
Educators and community groups will also find a study guide and suggested activities to creatively explore the themes of migration, identity, and empowerment.
Walanghiya ka (you have no shame). Nakakahiya (it is shameful). Mahiya ka naman (you should be ashamed of yourself). In Philippine culture, these words can be used to shame those who are different, unique radical. For many Philippine Americans, learning the Filipino language is a way of coming to terms with identity. The scholar Leny Strobel calls it an act of decolonization. This amazing anthology goes one step further. It affirms that the process of reclaiming a word signifies a liberating ideology, and features engaging, interrogative, and brilliantly written texts that enable us to understand diaspora nationalism." - Joi Barrios, author of "Bulaklak sa Tubig: Mga Tula ng Pag-ibig at Himagsik" ("Flowers in Water: Poems on Love and Revolt")
Lolan Buhain Sevilla and Roseli Ilano
Adrien Salazar, Aimee Suzara, Aldrich Sabac, Amalia Buena, David Maduli, Dionosio Velasco, Edene Matutina, Eileen Tabios, Ellen-Rae Cachola, Elsa Valmidiano, Emily Lawsin, Grace Talusan, Jen Palmares Meadows, Jenny C. Lares, Joan Iva Cube, Kristen Sajonas, Laurel Fantauzzo, Melanie Dulfo, Melissa Reyes, Michael Janairo, Michelle Ferrer, Niki Escobar, Paul Ocampo, Pippi Prado, Rachel Gray, Regie Cabico, Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, Thomas Paras, and Tina Bartolome.
Cover Art by Arlene Rodrigo, Collages by Aimee Espiritu
Please send comments or direct questions to us by using this form:
Copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved


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The great acting teacher Uta Hagen wrote that one of the greatest goals of an actor is spontaneity. A cat on stage, she noted, was inevitably the most interesting actor—because it behaved as it pleased, unrehearsed. A cat could do anything at any time. With their narrative feature debut, writer-directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden cut a slice of life that's rich with spontaneity, and the feline duo of Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps create together what may be the year's most fascinating screen odd couple.
Gosling plays Dan Dunne, a junior-high history teacher and basketball coach in Brooklyn. Resolutely pursuing his own discussion-based muse, Dan dodges the core curriculum to teach history his way. "History is change," explains Dan, encouraging kids to see the patterns of change as emergent from a series of dialectical showdowns. By day, Dunne dances as fast as he can to keep his students' attention (invariably losing at least one to a nap); by night, he loses himself in a haze of cocaine and ponders if he's making a difference. Would it be enough to change one child, and is he even capable of doing so?
Ironically, Dan's best opportunity comes not in a classroom—where his hangovers and neuroses make him unreliable—but in the locker room. There, thirteen-year-old Drey (Epps) finds her teacher slumped around the toilet with a crack pipe between his fingers. This unexpected entanglement batters the teacher-student boundary, but allows a wary understanding to develop into a caring if volatile friendship. Drey chooses not to abuse her knowledge, but she's rightly concerned about the self-destructive path of her most appealingly loose teacher. As Dan begins to take in the bigger picture of Drey's life, he too cannot help but feel a frustrated protective instinct.
If Dan is hanging precariously from a precipice, Drey is approaching her own. Left too often alone by her single mother—a caring but harried EMT—the lollipop-sucking Drey entertains persistent offers of friendship from Frank (Anthony Mackie of She Hate Me), the neighborhood drug dealer responsible for landing her older brother in prison. She's clearly in search of a male influence, and Dan's in no position to throw stones at Frank, a friendly and reasonable man who makes his living off addicts like Dan. Nevertheless, neither Dan nor Drey seems willing to accept that a career in drug-dealing is the girl's best option.
Dan's deep-seated liberal disillusionment is the cracked mirror of his parents' resignment. Former radical protestors, they've traded "up" to cynical middle-class alcoholism. In a politically numb America, Dan's ambivalence thoroughly infects his life. In career (both as teacher and indecisive writer), crash-and-burn relationships with women, and the drug habit that keeps him barely functioning (he claims to have tried and failed at rehab), Dan is a man adrift, desperately wanting change but unable to see the forest for the trees and unwilling to pick up an axe.
Fleck and Boden excel at patiently portraying private thoughts and behaviors; the fluid camerawork and Boden's editing complement a script that vehemently refuses cliché. Habitually wiping his cottonmouth, Gosling simmers on low, his despair cut with off-kilter, self-deprecating humor. Epps provides a subtle, close-to-the-vest counterpoint to the addict's fuck-it attitudes. Their emotionally crushing penultimate encounter leads to a crossroads conclusion, one enticing enough to have audiences demanding a sequel to follow the characters wherever they're headed next.


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Falling, with style
Have you seen Jumanji? It's one of my favourite kids movies about a magical  board game that comes to life and when not being played emits a pulsating African drum beat to lure its next players.
When I woke up at 3am with the wound site on my back pulsating like the Jumanji drums and the feeling I had been hit by a truck I knew we were in trouble.
I couldn't bring myself to wake Chef. That poor man must be phobic of 3am the number of times I've woken him at that hour in a psychosis, anxiety attack, back drama, insert other crises here. Instead I broke the no driving for six weeks rule and got myself to Mona Vale Hospital (aka Club Mona for the amount of time we frequent it).
What transpired was an ambulance transfer back to Royal North Shore and a nine day stay after they had to open up the wound site to clean out an abscess that revealed a staph aureus infection.
I was home a mere two days before things went awry once more and here I am, back in RNS, another surgery, another clean-out and another "highly unusual"situation with a wound site not doing what its meant to do.
To cheer me up my beautiful friend Mary set up a Pinterest board for people to post things on they knew would make me laugh or my neck itch. Next to my own Things That Shit Me board, its probably the best representation of my personality ever compiled.
So here I am, hopeful of going home tomorrow to once again strive for a mundane life.


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August 11, 2013
Belorussian Y chromosomes and mtDNA
Uniparental Genetic Heritage of Belarusians: Encounter of Rare Middle Eastern Matrilineages with a Central European Mitochondrial DNA Pool
Alena Kushniarevich et al.
Ethnic Belarusians make up more than 80% of the nine and half million people inhabiting the Republic of Belarus. Belarusians together with Ukrainians and Russians represent the East Slavic linguistic group, largest both in numbers and territory, inhabiting East Europe alongside Baltic-, Finno-Permic- and Turkic-speaking people. Till date, only a limited number of low resolution genetic studies have been performed on this population. Therefore, with the phylogeographic analysis of 565 Y-chromosomes and 267 mitochondrial DNAs from six well covered geographic sub-regions of Belarus we strove to complement the existing genetic profile of eastern Europeans. Our results reveal that around 80% of the paternal Belarusian gene pool is composed of R1a, I2a and N1c Y-chromosome haplogroups – a profile which is very similar to the two other eastern European populations – Ukrainians and Russians. The maternal Belarusian gene pool encompasses a full range of West Eurasian haplogroups and agrees well with the genetic structure of central-east European populations. Our data attest that latitudinal gradients characterize the variation of the uniparentally transmitted gene pools of modern Belarusians. In particular, the Y-chromosome reflects movements of people in central-east Europe, starting probably as early as the beginning of the Holocene. Furthermore, the matrilineal legacy of Belarusians retains two rare mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, N1a3 and N3, whose phylogeographies were explored in detail after de novo sequencing of 20 and 13 complete mitogenomes, respectively, from all over Eurasia. Our phylogeographic analyses reveal that two mitochondrial DNA lineages, N3 and N1a3, both of Middle Eastern origin, might mark distinct events of matrilineal gene flow to Europe: during the mid-Holocene period and around the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, respectively.
22 comments:
- Rob said...
The authors are to be commended for analyzing sub-regions, which shows distinctive patterning
Their findings w.r.t I2a merely confirms the notion that I2a must have spread recently and cannot not a "Palaeolithic/ Mesolithic" marker - Sunday, August 11, 2013 10:10:00 am
- genefan said...
I wonder why M458 is just 14.5%, against 36% other R1a.
M458 was considered the ultimate "Slavic" marker and Belarus as a proxy for real Slavic population. - Sunday, August 11, 2013 12:26:00 pm
- Fanty said...
"M458 was considered the ultimate "Slavic" marker and Belarus as a proxy for real Slavic population."
I doubt m458 beeing the ultimate slavic marker.
Belarus as a Proxy for "Slavic invasions" Slavs may be correct.
I recall an article on Davidskis blog wich said, the best Proxy for the migrants that entered Poland during the "Slavic Invasions" are Belarus. It however claimed, there still is no better modern Proxy for Polands population before the SLav-Invasions other than modern Poles.
Also, the real "Pan_Slavic" marker, if there is one at all, is Z280. Its the only type of R1a wich can be found in massive amounts in ALL ereas Slavs ever settled, including Slavs in East Germany while M458 is somewhat confined to Southpoland (Northpoland is Z280 terretory), Czechia and Slovacia. - Sunday, August 11, 2013 7:17:00 pm
- Slumbery said...
Dr. Rob
"Their findings w.r.t I2a merely confirms the notion that I2a must have spread recently and cannot not a "Palaeolithic/ Mesolithic" marker"
Well, it is surely not Paleolithic here, since this region was uninhabited or very sporadically settled during the Ice Age, so nothing is Paleolithic there locally. At the other hand this article not only does not show any results that would make less likely a Mesolithic Balkan presence of YHg I, but also compatible with a possible Neolithic spread in Belorussia. That is hardly "recent".
(What is recent anyway? I never heard anybody arguing for any Paleolithic YHg presence in Belorussia.) - Monday, August 12, 2013 9:08:00 am
- Davidski said...
The most basal clade of I2a to date has been found in a sample from South Central Poland.
So this is unlikely to be a Balkan marker, but an East Central European marker that spread with the early Slavs from Poland to the Balkans, via Belarus and/or Ukraine.
By the way, M458 is certainly a Proto-Slavic marker too, but much of the M458 in Belarus might actually be of Polabian origin, thanks to eastward migrations by German Slavs due to pressure put on them by the Franks. - Monday, August 12, 2013 5:15:00 pm
- andrew said...
The authors of this study don't really deserve to be singled out for a discipline-wide issue, but I am really disappointed that in 2013 we are predominantly seeing studies that only look at uniparental Y-DNA ad mtDNA lineages, or that only look at autosmoal DNA without considering uniparental data. The potential to learn worthwhile things by getting mtDNA and autosomal DNA from every female subject and all three from every male subject and correlating the data seems to be missed again and again and again to our detriment.
- Monday, August 12, 2013 9:10:00 pm
- Slumbery said...
"The most basal clade of I2a to date has been found in a sample from South Central Poland."
The most basal clade found until now.
"So this is unlikely to be a Balkan marker, but an East Central European marker that spread with the early Slavs from Poland to the Balkans, via Belarus and/or Ukraine.
And on the way it teleported to Sardinia. I know it is not the same subgroup of I2a than the currently dominant one in the Balkan, but you talked about the entire I2a as well...
Also Romanians have no less I2a than the their Slav neighbours.
Maybe I2a was born in the current Poland, who knows, but the data is not sufficient and there are things that do not fit. - Monday, August 12, 2013 9:46:00 pm
- Rob said...
@ Slumberry
By recent , I mean that the *current* distribution & frequency of I2a2 is very recent, or historic, mid first millennium AD, throughout EE, not just the Balkans
"The Slavs" did not come from Poland. Impossible. One needs to look at the archaeological evidence , or lack of it, and stop making speculations based solely on DNA . Poland was a near terra deserta from 500-700 AD! This has been confirmed by dendro-dating and palynological studies which show massive reforestation and absence of anthropogenic farming activity in the pollen profiles . Same with Belarus for that matter, where the precious wielbark culture virtually disappears after 450.
Aside from the large role of cultural and languistic shift played in the process of slavonization of EE, any demographic growth and secondary migration would have come from the Carparhian basin/ middle Danube and the east carpathian regions (Moldavia / wallachia ). In contrast to the Vistula - Oder-Elbe region , Andover I the Balkan dinaric hinterland, the two above regions show indisputable evidence of population continuity, an indeed cultural, economic and demographic 'thriving " on the period in question (400-700AD)
If I might even speculate , I2a came from east carpathians and spread widely thru EE, with massive founder effect in Herzegovina (which was virtually entirely depopulated), and M458 spread from "Avaria" into Poland, Belarus etc. indeed , as Pamjav study shows , Hungarians still have high levels of M458. - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 2:35:00 am
- Davidski said...
Well yeah, I was talking about the current I2a1b.
Anyway, this map probably isn't far off, because the I2a1b in the Balkans is derived from lineages up north.
http://knordtvedt.home.bresnan.net/Tree%20and%20Map%20for%20Hg%20I.pdf - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 11:02:00 am
- Valfol said...
Interesting to find together:
and (F*+T*+G2a*+I2a*) + R1a-M458 - Tuesday, August 13, 2013 11:37:00 am
- Slumbery said...
Dr. Rob
If under East Carpathians you mean about Transylvania, that is very problematic for the same reason you mentioned for Poland: drastic population decrease and reforestation after the Roman times. That can't be the source of the Slavs.
As for the Carpathian Basin: where they were just a century before? Romans did not mention them here and a significant part of the basin was under their direct control or was their borderland almost until 400 AD. Also what is the archaeological culture here that you would connect to them? The Carpathian Basin as a source makes more questions than answers even if we forget the genetics.
- Tuesday, August 13, 2013 7:22:00 pm
- Davidski said...
Dr Rob,
The proto-Slavs were farmers in Poland who turned nomadic to cope with the effects of the collapse in trade with the Roman Empire.
This was a highly successful strategy which resulted in relatively large population growth, and population replacement in the Balkans and Hungarian Plain, where wars and disease killed large numbers of people. I2a, R1a-M458 and R1a-Z280 are very useful markers of this Slavic expansion from north to south.
And if you're suggesting that M458 was an Avar marker, then you're obviously more hilarious than I gave you credit for. M458 is phylogeographically rooted in what is now Poland, because it's under European-specific Z283, and parallel to Scandinavian-specific Z284 and Balto-Slavic Z280. - Wednesday, August 14, 2013 5:25:00 am
- Rob said...
@ Slumberry
First of all, the East Carpathian region is not Transylvania, but is *east* of the Carpathians. Ie northern Wallachia and Moldavia. However, more importantly, the demographic decline (both in Carpathian plain and Moldavian plain) in the final Roman to early medieval period was nowhere near as drastic as in Poland. It was merely a relative decline. In fact, there was population continuity documented by settlements and burials of "east Germanic" and "late Roman" (to use generic , traditional labelling) type into Avar period, and beyond in the middle Danube and Carpathian basin, as well as areas in the east, between the Danube to the Dnieper, hugging the steppe- forest steppe frontier.
In contrast, in the Elbe-Oder region, there was near complete population collapse. The two regions are not even comparable.
As regards to your second paragraph, what you must be able to do is distinguish between *population continuity* and *ethnic continuity*. The two are very different concepts. Ethnicity and identity can be merely created, or "born", almost suddenly, although they draw upon past traditions and origin myths. Without going into the complex issue of "Slavic ethnogenesis", and the incorrectness of your question "what is the archaeological culture there you would connect them" (as it is founded on the very outdated principles of essentialism / primordialism and culture-history); lets look at the hard archaeological facts: - in the late 5th, 6th and early 7th centuries, pockets of populations only existed in the Carpathian region (ie Hungary), middle Danube (Slovakia, eastern Moravia), and Pomerania and adjacent east Baltic. This is where Poland was likely re-colonized from, and given the newly discovered findings of Avar type weapons and belt fittings in 'early Slavic ' context in Poland, my guess is that M458's expansion and high frequency in Poland is due to this founder effect from Carpathia and subsequent expansion; and not due to some *in situ* origin associated with the Corded Ware culture.
- Wednesday, August 14, 2013 12:15:00 pm
- Rob said...
U misunderstood . Generic markers are neither "Slavic ", nor "Germanic" , new "Avar". U need to seriously improve your understanding of anthropolgy & archaeology first, so then future pearls of wisdom make sense to you; and so your forum posts arent B- grade speculaions of an uninformed semi- educate. Regards - Thursday, August 15, 2013 4:16:00 am
- Rob said...
And moreover, your inventing your own history . The Slavs did not "become nomads". Their material culture is not nomadic, nor has any scholar ever thought so.
That Poland was colonised from the Carpathians doesn't mean they are avars , but had close links with them. And don't forget that Slavic was the lingua Franca in their empire - Thursday, August 15, 2013 4:26:00 am
- Davidski said...
Dr Rob,
I already explained to you that M458 is a marker closely related to the Scandinavian Z284 and Baltic Z280. This should be a strong hint that it didn't arrive from south of Poland very recently, but developed in-situ on the North European Plain from the same mutation as Z284 and Z280. This mutation was Z283, which was likely the main paternal marker within the Corded Ware zone.
Of course, Polish uniparental markers match Polish genome-wide structure and ancient DNA from the region. You don't need several degrees in genetics to understand that the following data, for instance, do not leave any room for a late re-population of Poland from the south.
And I have no idea what you've been reading, but yes, early Slavs are accepted as a nomadic people.
Always glad to be of assistance. - Friday, August 16, 2013 1:28:00 am
- Rob said...
Slavs were itinerant farmers, not nomads. If you don't even know such basics, then there is no point discussing anything further with you. You're just confabulating a theory just to account for the fact that POland was virtually entirely depopulated for 2 centuries !! (500s to 700s). You seem to be unaware that your very own national archaeologists, M Parceski and K Godlowski found this fact ! So the only way you can maintain your chauvinistic ideas of a Polish homeland for Slavs, and even PIEs, is to create an alternate reality that Slavs had always lived there, then for some reason, became "nomadic" for 2 centuries, hence seem to have "disappeared" from the archaeological record. As if ghosts living in trees. And because you, and other supporters of such an idea have no archaeological data to support your ideas, you then fall back on half-baked ideas of a continuity of skull shapes, and other such non-sense, and now "genetic proof" which you really have little if any clear grasp on.
Secondly, "from the south" is a relative term. By south, I mean, Slovakia and the north Carpathian region, so one hardly need to think of an entirely genetically alien population.
No one doubts the 'northern' affinities of modern Poles, but keep in mind there has been a whole lot of 'shaping' subsequent to the 6th century, AD, autosomally speaking (Danish/ Viking intermixture, natural selection to a northern environment, etc)
And Z280 is not "Baltic". It is found throughout eastern Europe- as far as Macedonia and Greece. What makes you call it "Baltic" ? And you have not proven that Z280 and Z284 weren't founding populations from more southern regions . You have not proven an 'autochthonous' origin. - Saturday, August 17, 2013 8:38:00 am
- Onur Dincer said...
And I have no idea what you've been reading, but yes, early Slavs are accepted as a nomadic people.
Early Slavs are not accepted as a nomadic society (they were a farming society), and, BTW, that article does not say early Slavs were nomadic. Just like the early Germanic peoples and Vikings, early Slavs had an increased but non-nomadic mobility that was driven by search for booty rather than mode of production and were regarded as barbarians of a non-nomadic kind by Romans/Byzantines. - Saturday, August 17, 2013 7:41:00 pm
- Davidski said...
Dr Rob,
Z280 shows by far highest SNP diversity between the Carpathians and the Baltic. Z284 is not found outside of Scandinavia unless in areas visited by Vikings. So these markers obviously moved from north to south in recent times.
However, Poles are in fact more "northern" (ie. less Mediterranean) than Danes, and more like the Gotland hunter-gatherers than Swedes. So Scandinavian admixture can't account for the northern-like genetic structure of modern Poles. It has to be a native phenomenon.
Also, the article I linked to clearly says that early Slavs were mobile and could hide out in forests if necessary. Perhaps this is what you're interpreting as an empty Poland at the time?
In any case, your theories certainly don't make any sense when confronted with modern and ancient DNA evidence. But you seem rather clueless in that regard, so I'm not surprised. - Sunday, August 18, 2013 10:51:00 am
- Bolek said...
Some Slavs were farmers and some were nomads from the steppe.
Penkov culture is an example of Slavic nomadic steppe culture:
From Mallory's "Encyklopedia of Indo-European culture"
Speculations that Penkov culture had Iranian substrate which was assimilated by Slavs have been debunked by genetics and anthropology. There is no Iranian R1a-Z93 there, only Slavic R1a-Z283.
Farmers can also easily become nomads and this happened in Poland when crisis started. It was caused by climatic changes and collapse of agriculture as well as collapse of trade, wars etc. This was the main reason for the change of archeological culture. People became poor and their material culture changed and as a result there was very little to be found by archeological methods.
Majority of Polish archeologists and historians (Leciejewicz, Hensel, Kostrzewski, Labuda, Jażewski, Dąbrowski etc…) have been always writing about crisis in Poland and not population replacement, also anthropologist (prof. Piontek) and geneticist (prof. Grzybowski) present a lot of modern evidence that there was population continuity in Oder-Vistula basin. Poland experienced crisis in V century, like it happened in other regions of Europe, but not population replacement.
Example of crisis in Britain:
Godłowski and Parczewski are followers of German Kossina and I wouldn't call them Polish archeologists. Kossina's method has been considered as pseudoscience by many. Pots are not people. Genetics, anthropology and linguistics present better methods for determining populations changes and they contradict claims of Kossina's school. - Sunday, August 18, 2013 10:19:00 pm
- Onur Dincer said...
Also, the article I linked to clearly says that early Slavs were mobile and could hide out in forests if necessary.
That is not what is understood by nomadism. Nomadism is a form of high mobility that is related to mode of production and because of that is usually much more persistent than other forms of high mobility. The high mobility of early medieval Slavs was a temporary phenomenon (it lasted only for a few centuries) as it was separate from mode of production and thus non-nomadic.
Also, that article only says that early medieval Slavs had increased mobility and does not say that they were nomadic. - Monday, August 19, 2013 7:12:00 pm
- Rob said...
@ Davidski
We have seriously veered off-topic. You might be a bright fellow and a nice guy, but you dont even have a grasp of how to properly and cautiously reconstruct the genetic evidence, let alone other data (archaeology, linguistics, etc). So i'll leave the archaeology for now becuase you appear in some kind of religious denial that there appears to be nothign but emptiness in most of Poland from ~ 450 AD to 650 AD. Your discussion of 'nomadism' betrays an utter ignorance of what nomdism even is, and relies on questionable-quality sources who have not elicited any serious support outside die-hard 'autochthonist' circles.
Granted M458 might have arisen in the Baltic, but there is equally no reason to doubt that it could have risen elsehwere farther south. Your arguements about Z284 are non -sequitur. The daughter branches of Z 283 could have variuosly arisen anywhere between Scandinavia, the Balkans and central Asia.
You have not produced any real data, no analysis, nor any strong proof that Z 280 arose in the Baltic , or Poland. And when/ where a clade *originates* are a very different thing to when it more recently re-expands. Eg M458 could be 4000 years old, and could have arisen anywhere between the Baltic and Black Sea. However, it likely expanded, or *re-expanded* again in Poland only 1500 years ago, as a re-colonization of deserted Vistula-Oder reigon. This explains its ubiquity and near-fixation frequency there.
Of course, one would need to analyze every subclade and cluster of M458 to show this, somethign I hope to do in the future, but from what I have seen in Piotr Gwozdz work, he has found this very finding, ie that there appears to have a population expansion in Poland exactly 1500 years ago, ie ~ 600 AD. - Tuesday, August 20, 2013 10:16:00 am


text:
- Title
- SAPHIRE: stress and pulmonary hypertension in rheumatoid evaluation - a prevalence study
- Creator
- Reeves, G. E. M.; Collins, N.; Hayes, P.; Knapp, J.; Squance, M.; Tran, H.; Bastian, B.
- Relation
- International Journal of Rheumatology Vol. 2016, no. 4564531
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/4564531
- Publisher
- Hindawi
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) is a disorder of elevated resistance in the pulmonary arterial vessels, reflected by elevation of measured pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), and presenting with breathlessness and, if untreated, progressing to right heart failure and death. The heightened prevalence of PAH in populations with underlying systemic autoimmune conditions, particularly scleroderma and its variants, is well recognised, consistent with the proposed autoimmune contribution to PAH pathogenesis, along with disordered thrombotic, inflammatory, and mitogenic factors. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of a group of systemic autoimmune conditions featuring inflammatory symmetrical erosive polyarthropathy as its hallmark. This study explored the prevalence of PAH in a population of unselected individuals with RA, using exercise echocardiography (EchoCG). The high prevalence of EchoCG-derived elevation of PAP (EDEPP) in this population (14%) suggests that, like other autoimmune conditions, RA may be a risk factor for PAH. Patients with RA may therefore represent another population for whom PAH screening with noninvasive tools such as EchoCG may be justified.
- Subject
- pulmonary artery hypertension; rheumatoid evaluation; breathlessness; heart failure
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1344912
- Identifier
- uon:29525
- Identifier
- Rights
- Copyright © 2016 G. E. M. Reeves et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
- Reviewed
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text:
Samsung Galaxy Beam: world's first Android projector phone on sale in July
Ah, here we go, Samsung's other cellphone with an integrated projector just got an official launch date. The Galaxy Beam (codename: Halo) with its 3.7-inch Super AMOLED display is now slated to hit Singapore in July. That means that the European and broader launch across Asia should be just around the corner if Samsung's claims from Feburary hold true. At launch, the world's first Android phone with a built-in DLP pico projector will be served version 2.1 of Google's confectionary delight. Specwise, we're talking 7.2Mbps HSPA data on 900/1900/2100MHz and quad-band GSM/EDGE, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11n WiFi, an 8 megapixel autofocus camera with flash (front-facing VGA) and HD video recording, A-GPS, FM Radio, and an 1,800mAH battery. Memory is confusingly listed as "4Gb + 2Gb + 1Gb + 16Gb MoviNAND" made worse by no mention of microSD though it was definitely there when we went hands-on with Beam at Mobile World Congress. Specs after the break.


text:
Within the ever-growing cannabis oil industry is a new category of quality products that is seeing a rapid rise in commercial popularity. That product is called cannabidiol hemp oil, or CBD hemp oil has become wildly popular in the United States. These highly demanded hemp products are available for purchase in our online store and delivered straight to your door.
CBD hemp oil is made from high-CBD hemp, unlike medical marijuana products, which are usually made from plants with high concentrations of psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol. Cannabidiol (CBD) is just one of over 85 cannabinoids presently identified in the cannabis plant and is the second most abundant cannabinoid in marijuana after THC. In hemp, however, THC is only present in trace amounts, while CBD dominates the plant's makeup.
CBD interacts with our naturally occurring systems, but is non-psychotropic, it doesn't cause a high. This makes it a safer, less controversial alternative, while still offering significant potential health benefits for the user.
CBD, terpenes


text:
New Planned Parenthood Video Promotes Obama Re-Election
Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) leaders are "clearly concerned," said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president of the Planned Parenthood watchdog organization Life Decisions International (LDI). "They understand that the most pro-abortion president in American history may lose to Mitt Romney–a candidate who has pledged to eliminate taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood." Scott called PPAF's latest ad/video release is a "last-minute attempt to convince pro-abortion voters to go to the polls tomorrow." The new production is called, "Yes We Plan."
According to PPAF, "Yes We Plan" was inspired by the 2008 pro-Obama video by hip-hop artist Will.i.am ("Yes We Can"). "Yes We Plan," which features actress Julianne Moore, singer Mary J. Blige, and hip-hop artist Q-Tip, urges voters to "protect women's health" by giving Obama another four years. Moore, Blige and Will.i.am are longtime, avid supporters of Planned Parenthood. The 150 second video/political ad begins and ends with excerpts from the Planned Parenthood encouragement video Obama released earlier this year.
"This election will unquestionably be decided by those Americans who do not vote," Scott said. "In other words, pro-life voters who stay home or waste their votes on third-party or write-in candidates will help assure Obama of a second term. On the other hand, if pro-abortion activists do not vote they may make it impossible for Obama to win re-election."
"Planned Parenthood is doing all it can to promote its dream candidate," Scott said. "PPAF chief Cecile Richards has taken a leave of absence from her pro-abortion duties to work full-time for the Obama/Biden campaign. This unprecedented move indicates that Richards knows the stakes could not be greater. Election 2012 may prove to be the most important yet when it comes to saving the lives of children."
Scott said abortion policy is by far the most important issue, but not the only reason Obama should be defeated. He was not referring to the Obama administration's disastrous handling of the economy, the staggering national debt, or even its botched foreign policy. He was referring to campaign strategy.
Over the past several months, Americans have been bombarded with ads that defend Planned Parenthood and Roe v. Wade. Some were produced by PPAF; some by the Obama/Biden campaign; others by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and related entities. They have also released several videos (too long for commercials) that promote abortion and continued taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. The ads/videos portray Mitt Romney as ignorant, anti-woman, and extreme.
Official PPAF, Obama/Biden and DNC-related campaign ads/videos are just the beginning. Several more special interest groups have produced ads/videos that focus on statewide elections across the country.
"After the final vote is counted, if PPAF and its legions were unsuccessful in swaying the election with misleading ads on abortion and birth control, the groups may be a little more wary about doing so in the future. But if they are successful, the strategy will be repeated every two years with ever-increasing intensity."
"If pro-life Americans do not step up to the plate we will have no one to blame but ourselves. But it is not we who will suffer the consequences of failure," Scott said. "This cost will be paid by preborn children and we simply cannot allow that to happen."
"Personally, I'm all for 'moving forward,' but not blindly; not when we're heading for a cliff. We have the power to steer this country in the right direction," Scott said. "Let's use it."
Douglas R. Scott, Jr., has been a leader in the Pro-Life Movement for more than 30 years. He is author of Bad Choices: A Look Inside Planned Parenthood and has publicly debated several Planned Parenthood officials. Life Decisions International (LDI) is dedicated to challenging the Culture of Death, concentrating on exposing and fighting the agenda of Planned Parenthood. LDI's chief project is a boycott of corporations that fund the abortion-committing giant. For information about LDI, please click here. To learn more about Planned Parenthood, please click here.


text:
[For anyone who doesn't know, I'm from the United States of America and talking about my own government.]
As someone who's only foray into opinion columns was trying to make a historical argument for higher taxes on the rich, perhaps this comes as no surprise. But there I
was mostly talking about debt and investing. Here I want to talk
about big government in itself.
I hear a lot of arguments against it, I
don't hear nearly enough for it. In fact, not only do we not really hear arguments for it, we don't even here people simply saying, "I want that." Well, I want that.
Consider a very simple example. Go
down to the BMV/DMV/[whatever your local version is called]. Look at the wait time. You know the reason for
that? The government is too damn small. If we hired more workers
then the wait time would be smaller. Hire enough workers and there
would be hardly any wait time at all. If we make government bigger,
dealing with government will suck significantly less.
The same could be said of the SSA or
HHS or pretty much any government agency (state or federal) you can think of. Do you
like waiting in line? Unless you do, the answer is a bigger
government. More workers to help you out means less time spent
waiting for one to become available.
Not having to wait in line for hours on
end is something I'd like to think that we can all get behind, and
the solution is both simple and obvious: bigger government. Each of
those workers is the government. Every time one is hired that makes
the government bigger. Some people don't like that. They want the
government to be smaller which means that we all have to wait in
longer lines whenever it should happened that we need to deal with
any part of the government.
That's a rather simple example that
won't exactly change the world (although hiring more people would
make the employment picture better for everyone) but it's
illustrative. When it comes to the number of employees available to
help the people waiting in line, smaller government makes things
worse, bigger government makes things better. The idea that bigger
is always worse is clearly false.
What about roads? After the stimulus
there was more road construction than I ever saw before in my life,
but there are so many other crappy roads and they still stuck and now
the stimulus is over. Right now things are made even worse than
normal because the congress refuses to pass a transportation bill
which means that states don't know whether the money to finish a
project will be there when they need it, so they're limiting
themselves to small projects. But even if things were normal, we
still wouldn't be taking the roads seriously. Nor the bridges roads
There are 143,889 deficient bridges
around today. (Most are in use.) Know why? The government is too
damned small.
In fairness, that number is an
improvement. When I was originally made aware of this the number was
149,647. Hopefully the change was a result of fixing things rather
than standing by while they collapsed. Let's assume it is. That
means that more than three, almost four, percent of the problem has
been solved. A little over 96% remains. Or, in other words, we need
a government capable of doing 25 times that much work. Right now we
don't even have a government capable of doing the 3% again since that
progress was made under special circumstances that have since ended.
Like I said, the government is too damn small.
I want a government that can fix this.
I want a government that is so vast
that when I need to deal with it I don't have to sacrifice my day to
waiting in line.
I want a government that is so vast
that the roads are well paved.
I want a government so vast that the
bridges are not deficient.
I want a government so vast that water
mains are kept in good repair.
I want a government so vast that sewers
and storm drains are too.
I want a government so vast that
medicine and supplements are tested to make sure they're not going to
kill me.
I want a government so vast that it can
regulate the banks and make sure that they never pull that shit
I want a government so vast that it can
do the same thing to other industries.
I want a government so vast that it can
catch tax cheats.
I want a government so vast that it can
make sure that in this country none go hungry.
I want a government so vast that it can
make it so anyone who wants to go to college or university can do so
without ending up in a mountain of debt.
I want a government so vast that it can
ensure that none are unable to get healthcare.
I want a government so vast that it can
jumpstart work on renewable domestic energy sources so that we're
energy independent.
I want a government so vast that it can
create the best education system on earth.
I want a government so vast that it can make it so our
power grid does not suck.
I want a government so vast that dams
are inspected.
I want a government so vast that it can
stop businesses from pushing around people, instead of itself being
pushed around by businesses.
I want a government so vast that it can
do its fucking job.
I want big government.
Now two things need to be said, the
first is that I do believe there are limits to what the scope of
government should be. When government tells consenting adults what
they can do in their bedroom, that's going too far. When the
government decides that it is more qualified than women and their
doctors to say what happens to those women's vaginas, that goes too
far. When the government spies without warrants, that goes too far.
When the government imprisons people without trial, that goes too
far. There are definitely limits. Many more than I just listed.
But the reason those things are
problems is not because they are examples of big government, but
rather because they are examples of bad government. Bad
government is, by definition, bad regardless of whether it is big or
small. Size has nothing to do with it.
The other thing is that what I'm
talking about is expensive. In many of those cases it requires a big
government just because it requires more people to be in government
(for example, more dam inspectors) but in all of those cases it's big
government in that it requires a government that spends the money to
do that.
It definitely would be taxing and
spending. That's what government is. That's how it works. A
government spends so that shit gets done. A government taxes so that
the shit that gets done gets paid for. If you don't spend, nothing
good happens. If you don't tax, you go into debt.
Good government involves taxing and
spending. If it doesn't spend then it doesn't do its job since doing
things costs money. If it doesn't tax then it gets deeper and deeper
in debt. Tax and spend isn't an insult, it's an accurate description
of how government works. It's like calling a dolphin a "swim and
breathe" animal and expecting it to be insulted. No. That's how
dolphins work. If they don't swim they don't accomplish much of
anything and if they don't breathe they're not going to last very
I might have more sympathy if the
people who were against "tax and spend" offered an alternative
beyond "just spend" because spending without taxing in kind really isn't
sustainable. If the Reagan years didn't teach them that, the Bush
years should have. The debt incurred was immense.


text:
ACLU Welcomes Proposed State Secrets Fix, Applauds Senator Kennedy for Introduction of Legislation
Contact: 202-675-2312 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Washington, DC – The Bush Administration may soon have one less tool in its chest to stymie legitimate cases that might expose government misconduct. Today, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), introduced legislation aimed at narrowing the scope of the state secrets privilege – a huge step towards opening the courthouse doors to people who have suffered real and legitimate harm by the government. Several important suits, including one involving the extraordinary rendition of a German citizen, Khaled El-Masri, have been successfully blocked by this administration's use of the state secrets privilege.
The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
"Senator Kennedy has done a great service by introducing this legislation. For too long, the government has hid behind an overly-broad interpretation of the state secrets privilege to protect itself from the glare of oversight. The Bush Administration has frequently used the privilege as an alternate form of immunity to block entire cases from going forward. We all agree that there need to be precautions when it comes to national security, but courts have been competently managing the balance between the security of classified information and the right to a fair trial in criminal cases for years. Senator Kennedy's bill recognizes this fact.
"Abuse of the state secrets privilege is not an abstract concept. It has a real and human cost. Khaled El-Masri, Binyam Mohamed, Abou Elkassim Britel, Ahmed Agiza and others have all claimed to have been kidnapped and tortured by our government. El-Masri was denied his day in court as a result of the administration's use of the state secrets privilege. This bill would ensure the other victims will be allowed their attempts at justice.
"Senator Kennedy's bill allows the court to review government national security claims, thus lowering the wall of the current state secrets privilege to just a hurdle. The current form of the privilege has allowed the administration to successfully hold off investigations into its extraordinary rendition program and its warrantless wiretapping program. The cloak must be lifted and we urge Congress to waste no time in passing Senator Kennedy's bill."
To read more about the ACLU's work on NSA spying, go to:
To read more about the case of Khaled El-Masri and the ACLU's work on rendition, go to:
Stay Informed
Every month, you'll receive regular roundups of the most important civil rights and civil liberties developments. Remember: a well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.


text:
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Pluto Is Undergoing Global Warming
Birmingham - Oct 09, 2002 Pluto is undergoing global warming, as evidenced by a three-fold increase in the planet's atmospheric pressure during the past 14 years, a team of astronomers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Williams College, the University of Hawaii, Lowell Observatory and Cornell University announced in a press conference today at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) Division for Planetary Sciences in Birmingham, Ala. The team, led by James Elliot, professor of planetary astronomy at MIT and director of MIT's Wallace Observatory, made this finding by watching the dimming of a star when Pluto passed in front of it Aug. 20. The team carried out observations using eight telescopes at Mauna Kea Observatory, Haleakala, Lick Observatory, Lowell Observatory and Palomar Observatory. Data were successfully recorded at all sites. An earlier attempt to observe an occultation of Pluto on July 19 in Chile was not highly successful. Observations were made from only two sites with small telescopes because the giant telescopes and other small telescopes involved lost out to bad weather or from being in the wrong location that day. These two occultations were the first to be successfully observed for Pluto since 1988. Elliot said the new results have surprised the observers, who as recently as July thought that Pluto's atmosphere may be cooling. "From the July data, we knew that Pluto's atmosphere had changed since 1988, but the August data allowed us to probe much more deeply into Pluto's atmosphere and have given us a more accurate picture of the changes that have occurred," he said. Jay Pasachoff, an astronomy professor at Williams College, said that Pluto's global warming was "likely not connected with that of the Earth. The major way they could be connected is if they were caused by a large increase in sunlight. But the solar constant - the amount of sunlight received each second - is carefully monitored by spacecraft, and we know the sun's output is much too steady to be changing the temperature of Pluto." Pluto's orbit is much more elliptical than that of the other planets, and its rotational axis is tipped by a large angle relative to its orbit. Both factors could contribute to drastic seasonal changes. Since 1989, for example, the sun's position in Pluto's sky has changed by more than the corresponding change on the Earth that causes the difference between winter and spring. Pluto's atmospheric temperature varies between around minus 235 and minus 170 degrees Celsius, depending on the altitude above the surface. The main gas in Pluto's atmosphere is nitrogen, and Pluto has nitrogen ice on its surface that can evaporate into the atmosphere when it gets warmer, causing an increase in surface pressure. If the observed increase in the atmosphere also applies to the surface pressure - which is likely the case - this means that the average surface temperature of the nitrogen ice on Pluto has increased slightly less than 2 degrees Celsius over the past 14 years. Marc Buie, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, has been measuring the amount of sunlight reflected by Pluto. "The pressure increase can be explained if the average amount of sunlight reflected by the surface has decreased, which means that more heat is absorbed from the sun," he said. "This could be the reason that the pressure has been pumped up." David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii who measured the size of Pluto in the late 1980s using a series of occultations and eclipses involving Pluto's satellite, noted that even though Pluto was closest to the sun in 1989, a warming trend 13 years later shouldn't be unexpected. "It takes time for materials to warm up and cool off, which is why the hottest part of the day on Earth is usually around 2 or 3 p.m. rather than local noon, when sunlight is the most intense," Tholen said. Because Pluto's year is equal to about 250 Earth years, 13 years after Pluto's closest approach to the Sun is like 1:15 p.m. on Earth. "This warming trend on Pluto could easily last for another 13 years," Tholen estimated. Pluto and Neptune's largest moon, Triton, are presently about the same distance from the sun, and each has a predominantly nitrogen atmosphere (with a surface pressure 100,000 times less than that on Earth), so one might expect similar processes to be occurring on these two bodies. A 1997 occultation of a star by Triton revealed that its surface had warmed since the Voyager spacecraft first explored it in 1989. On Triton, "Voyager saw dark material rising up as much as 12 km above the surface, indicating some kind of eruptive activity," Elliot said. "There could be more massive activity on Pluto, since the changes observed in Pluto's atmosphere are much more severe. The change observed on Triton was subtle. Pluto's changes are not subtle." Researchers study faraway objects through occultations - eclipse-like events in which a body (Pluto in this case) passes in front of a star, blocking the star's light from view. By recording the dimming of the starlight over time, astronomers can calculate the density, pressure and temperature of Pluto's atmosphere. Observing two or more occultations at different times provides researchers with information about changes in the planet's atmosphere. The structure and temperature of Pluto's atmosphere was first determined during an occultation in 1988. Pluto's brief pass in front of a different star on July 19 led researchers to believe that a drastic atmospheric change was under way, but it was unclear whether the atmosphere was warming up or cooling down. The data resulting from this occultation, when Pluto passed in front of a star known as P131.1, led to the current results. "This is the first time that an occultation has allowed us to probe so deeply into Pluto's atmosphere with a large telescope, which gives a high spatial resolution of a few kilometers," Elliot said. From MIT, in addition to Elliot, researchers involved were physics seniors Katie Carbonari, Erica McEvoy and Alison Klesman; Kelly Clancy, technical assistant in earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences; EAPS graduate student Susan Kern, MIT graduate Joyance Meechai; David Osip, EAPS research scientist; Michael Person, EAPS graduate student; and aeronautics and astronautics junior Shen Qu. NASA is still deciding whether to send a spacecraft to Pluto, the only planet not yet observed at close range. The Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission in the New Horizons Program, if approved, would be launched in 2006 and would reach Pluto 10 years later. This mission will seek to answer questions about the surfaces, atmospheres, interiors and space environments of the solar system's outermost objects, including Pluto and its moon, Charon. Researchers are looking forward to observing additional Pluto occultations in the years before the Pluto-Kuiper mission flies by Pluto. Of particular interest is the prospect of using SOFIA, a 2.5-meter airborne telescope being built by NASA in collaboration with the German space agency, for Pluto-occultation events when it begins operating in 2004. Edward Dunham, who leads the occultation effort at Lowell Observatory, also is leading a team that is building HIPO, a SOFIA instrument designed specifically to observe occultations. The combination of HIPO and SOFIA will provide very high-quality data on a much more frequent basis than is possible using ground-based telescopes alone. "This is a very complex process, and we just don't know what is causing these effects" on Pluto's surface, Elliot said. "That's why you need to send a mission." Related Links Astronomy at Williams College Pluto Occultation of P126A SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
The bizarre "Pluto War" is almost over at last, and Pluto is winning. Los Angeles - Oct 09, 2002 On Tuesday, October 8, the House VA/HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds NASA, announced that it has now joined the Senate Appropriations Committee in adding $105 million to NASA's fiscal year 2003 budget for the "New Horizons" Pluto flyby mission. This would allow the craft to be launched in January 2006, with arrival at Pluto in mid-2015 or mid-2016 (depending on the launch vehicle finally chosen for it). |
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If you're planning ahead, the month of December has always been a magical and economical time to visit the city of New Orleans with a stay in our Garden District Lodging, the Grand Victorian. Now a new family-friendly event offers another opportunity to get into the holiday spirit.
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center near the French Quarter and the Arts District will feature "New Orleans Christmas in the District," a series of holiday-themed large-scale light displays celebrating the culture and history of New Orleans. Over 70 trees will be lit up in festive holiday colors with unique sparkling lights installed at the tops of many of the palm trees, creating a one-of-a-kind holiday environment.
The display will include a unique digital Christmas tree, thousands of channels of lights that dance to the music and strobe lights that will surprise and delight visitors at just the right moments during the show.
New Orleans Christmas in the District begins Saturday, November 30, 2013, and runs nightly through January 6, 2014, and is free and open to the public.
Check back at our Garden District Lodging to learn more about holiday events in the city. The Christmas in New Orleans guidebook is due out soon.
Don't forget to take advantage of our New Orleans Lodging weeknight special going on right now. Buy two weeknights and get the third weeknight absolutely free!


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Where has June
already gone? This summer is rushing by again and quite frankly the
weather could be better over here. However there's a positive side to
that too, as I can share one more Eat Your Greens round up with you.
In the beginning of this month I called for Eat Your Greens
entries and got several lovely summer recipes. Just look at the
variety in the green collage above, so vibrant! Here are the June
from The Taste Space shared
with us a Three-Bean Salad with Asparagus and Coconut Dressing. It's a very wholesome
and filling salad containing steamed asparagus, green beans, yellow
beans, butter beans and green peas, served with a fragrant coconut
dressing. It sounds great and so healthy! The recipe is originally
from from Allison Day's cookbook Whole Bowls.
from Roast Chicken and a Country Walk made
a Grilled Sweetcorn, Samphire and Avocado Salad.
She grilled the corn cobs and combined them with lettuce, samphire
and avocado and many other good ingredients to make a vibrant looking
summer salad. I really like the touch of samphire in this and do
agree that fresh sweetcorn is so much better in comparison with
tinned one.
from Touch Wood cooked
a dish from her home country Macedonia, Spanakopita.
Spanakopita is a very tasty filo pastry dish made with spinach and
feta cheese. Laura also added spring onions for some extra greens. I
wouldn't mind eating these anytime!
from Green Gourmet Giraffe posted
a Vegan lasagne with cauliflower, hummus and tofu "ricotta". Now this
is a different kind and intriguing vegan lasagne adapted from a
recipe in the Taste Space. It contains baby spinach as the greens and
the special bit is the vegan ricotta made from cauliflower, tofu,
hummus and seasoning. This recipe sounds very interesting and I
really want to try it, as it's so different to my regular veggie
vegan dish comes from Shaheen, my Eat Your Greens co-host, from
Allotment 2 Kitchen.
She shared a recipe for a Miso Bowl with Sea Vegetables, Asparagus, Edamame and Soya Beans.
It's a miso soup full of greens, like asparagus, edamame beans,
spring onions and coriander, something I've been wanting to make for
a long time. Maybe I'll now have enough inspiration after seeing
Shaheen's wonderful post.
Helen from Family
Friends Food prepared Asparagus carbonara with sun dried tomatoes. Asparagus is also the main star of this savoury pasta
dish. It's made in the fashion of a vegetarian pasta carbonara
combining asparagus and sun dried tomatoes. I would happily eat a
plate full of this.
Corina from
Searching for Spice shared with us a Roasted butternut squash salad. I really adore roasted squashes, as they make a
salad so filling and tasty. The squash in the combination with pecan
nuts and feta on a bed of greens sounds just great.
salad entry comes from Lisa from Food and Spice.
She posted this Dressed up kale salad,
which is adjusted from Green Gourmet Giraffe's recipe. The salad is
full of kale with a tahini, lemon and maple syrup dressing. This is a
very healthy and green dish.
own Eat Your Greens post was Swiss chard bubble and squeak.
The recipe and inspiration are by Nigel Slater, although I changed
the dish a bit from his recipe, for example by using swiss chard
instead of cabbage. Anyway I thought that it was a very nice recipe
to use summer greens and even left-overs, if you like.
these were all June contributions. Thank you so much again everyone
for participating and reading. I am now passing the hosting back to
Shaheen for July 2016. Keep sharing those beautiful recipes!


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Aladdin's Jonathan Freeman Longs for a Crystal Ball as He Awaits Broadway Return
Living near the theater district during the Broadway shutdown, photographer and performer Matthew Stocke has been haunted walking past the empty palaces sitting in repose, waiting for the lights and stars to return. In this new Broadway.com photo feature, he reunites members of the theater community with their Broadway home #AwayFromHome.
For the past 28 years, Tony nominee Jonathan Freeman has been entwined with the character of Jafar. Having voiced the Aladdin villain in the 1992 animated feature, Freeman returned to the world of Agrabah to originate the role on Broadway in 2014 and has continued in the part ever since then. With three other Disney musicals to his name (Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid) as well as many other credits on Broadway and beyond, Freeman always been a busy actor. During this season away from the New Amsterdam Theatre, Freeman has rediscovered the little joys in life as well as new passions. Here, he shares what is delighting him now and more.
"I have a house in Long Island that I've had for 28 years and I've been quarantined with my partner of 30 years. The really weird thing is that in those years, I have never spent more than three consecutive weeks here. Every single year, I have put in no fewer than a hundred daffodil bulbs, and I've never been here to see them grow and bud and bloom. To see them go through that cycle has been completely worth it. I reacquainted myself with some things like cooking and baking, and that was nice until it started to feel like it was all just too much. I was supposed to begin teaching on a more formal basis this year. I could never imagine myself teaching, to be honest. I did try it, at somebody's recommendation, and I really enjoyed it. I have been teaching virtually online now. I never considered that teaching about performing arts, or writing books about it, were things that I would be good at, but I've been feeling lately that maybe I do want to. I've learned that it's OK to not be constantly busy and challenging yourself—it's made me reflective. Now it feels like a rehearsal for retirement, which is something that I never really entertained. I never imagined myself retiring…I miss the energy of the city and going to work. I've been working since I was a teenager, so to suddenly not be working is strange. I have to admit that it was a little mournful to me [to return to the New Amsterdam Theatre]. I've been connected to that theater longer than just Aladdin—I did Mary Poppins there as well. I've been going there for more than 10 years. I'm so familiar with it that it was really mind-bending for me. I was happy to be there, but I felt very uncomfortable in a way…I wish I had a crystal ball to gaze into in real life—just so I would know what we were heading toward. I think the hardest thing is the great unknown. Like when you're waiting for a cake to come out of the oven, or for a baby to be born. It's that anticipation and flutter in your body that you can't quite kick. If I do find that crystal ball, I'll happily ship it to everyone I know."
Photos by Matthew Stocke/Matt James Photo NYC for Broadway.com
Additional reporting by Caitlin Moynihan


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Pope Francis has seen the light. He is in many respects an impressive Pope, because his moral positions overlap with that of many atheists, meaning, it is based on experience and observation. Human suffering is to be avoided, humans in dire straits will commit crimes, degrade themselves, and this is not good for the coherence of society.
In his recent encyclical, which is a letter to whomever wants to read it, he explains that be believes the Roman Catholic church has an obligation to protect 'creation'. This is quite a perfect stance from our point of view, because even though creationism is an incorrect belief, the idea we need to protect life as it presented itself in the last 2000 years is actually what most climate activist and scientist mean when they warn of risks and changes. Life will go on even if the planet warms 12 degrees, but it won't be us or the animals and plants we know. The Pope has the right focus.
Now all around the world people 'of faith' will start to think about ways to protect 'creation'. The reason they follow this Pope's advise is because his suggestion is good. It has no drawbacks for normal people. We do what we feel has the least negative consequences, that is how humans operate. Republicans in the US already shown they are a bunch of flaming hypocrites, Jeb Bush saying he doesn't take econoic advise form the Pope, but that is because wealth is what they care about, and their wealth is born out of fossil fuel economics.
We see a resurgence of ideology over economics. Elon Musk, the Party for the Animals in Holland, the Pope all three are driven by non-economic motives that are none the less valid and good. And in all three cases the ideas and actions find widespread resonance. It is simple : Only caring about maximizing fossil fuel cashflow is not the way most people want to spend their time on Earth.
Renewables mean many parts of Earth become viable to sustain life, because solar electricity can generate water, make fertilizer, drive planting etc. without costing anyone anything
But there is more the Pope could do. In fact he could do something nobody else could or would be motivated to do. He wants to mobilize people to protect creation, he does that by writing, talking and tweeting about it. But he is also the ruler of a small nation, the Vatican. It has a bank, the Vatican bank. This is a unique situation to be in if we think about Extraeconomics.
Extraeconomic rules :
- Start by spending savings, not by going into debt
- Use only renewable energy
- Don't transact with the world economy
- Sustains its own population
- Create/maintain a significant surplus in resources
- May transact with other extraeconomic zones
Extraeconomics is a new kind of thinking, not in terms of creating enterprises as part of the world economy, but instead creating them as 100% self sufficient operations, which get started by taking from the world economy, but which then stop interacting with it and which create large resouce surplusses (wood, fish, plastic, whatever) and only sustain the people involved in them. They are like martian colonies on Earth, with a mission to replenish resouces, mainly focussing on those that help us keep 'creation' alive and well, so carbon sequestering, biodiversity enhancing, carbon capturing activities.
Extraeconomics is not about isolation from the rest of the world, but only about disarming the economic forces that now drive us to exploit,destroy and consume so much more than we would without this misguided economic philosophy. The market is not king, and resources are not limitless. To sustain ourselves over millions of years to come, we need to work within our planetary limits, not follow the demands of fossil fuel producers and use as much of it as fast as possible to make them rich. Because that is what makes our economy so destructive, the drive to sell fossil fuels.
The vatican has build its wealth on banking, it was practically the first bank to print money, and it started doing that right after the printing press was invented. It's booming sale of indulgences allowed it to thrive and build its grand cathedrals, until people got fed up with paying for redemption and created the protestant and other spin-offs. Now the Vatican could do this once more, by creating a currency for Extraeconomic operations, because internally such operations have to be run like companies, with a big difference, namely without fossil fuel cost. An extraeconomic operation or enterprise has to be 100% renewable energy powered. That said they might be of such a size and complexity that they need a currency, one that does not invite interaction with the wider economy.
The church has always had monestaries, that where usually self sufficient, so in the religious realm extraeconomic systems are nothing new. What is new is that those systems can be set up to protect creation, that we have a Pope that has the motivation to do so, and that it even has all the economic autonomy needed to do it right. It has people motivated to put in the effort, people willing to cooperate, land around the globe, money to take the first resources and a philosophy that will always put life first.
Basically every non-economic ideology could bind people enough to allow them to set up and run an extraeconomic zone/system/enterprise. It is about the focus on preserving 'creation' and seeing beyond the limits of fossil fuel economics. Our planet has enormous potential if we use locally available resources, even in the deepest deserts and the middle of the atlantic ocean.
Lets hope Francis gets this..


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Home Page Chess Life Online 2008 February "GGGg" Wins East
"GGGg" Wins East |
By Jennifer Shahade | |
February 20, 2008 | |
"GGGg", a sensational team with three Grandmasters (Zviad Izoria, Eugene Perelshteyn and Roman Dzindzichashvili) won the U.S. Amateur Team East (Parsippany, NJ, Feb.16-18) with a 6-0 score. On the Boston Blitz blog , Eugene Perelshteyn told Chris Bird that the GGGg stands for three GMs and a future grandmaster. The possible future GM was 5-year-old Stephen Fanning, rated 178. Stephen is the son of John Fanning, who played with Eugene and Roman last year. When asked if future teams might try to copy the "GGGg" example, Eugene modestly left out that it's not so easy to find three strong GMs ready to play on a team together, and said: "If someone thinks this win is a walk in the park, they should think again. I believe that playing with so much pressure on the top boards, needing to win in every round, is not easy. Particularly if we face a team with a GM or IM on board one. I commend Izoria for his tough wins against Schneider and Lapshun." Read the full interview with Chris Bird here. Here is Eugene's win against Harvard freshman NM Teddy Coleman: 1646 This was a record turnout for the U.S. Amateur Team East , and Steve Doyle wrote that all 291 teams were winners. Be that as it may, below is a list courtesy the NJ chess federation homepage of those who brought home the top prizes. Read more about the Amateur Team East in the first CLO report, with photos by Elizabeth Vicary. Watch for a final blog by Abby Marshall later this week with more photos from Elizabeth. Also look for a Chess Life Magazine article on the U.S. Amateur Team East by Jack Adamo. First place—GGG(g) Second Place-- 1.d4 Third Place—No Money for my Chess Honey Fourth Place—We Own the Knight Fifth- No Longer Searching for Bobby Fischer U2100—Searching For Bobby Fischer U2000-New Britain Bad Bishops U1900—Hopkins Chess Club U1800—CIS Royals U1700—We Suggest you Resign U1600 –4NCS U1500—CIS Falcons U1400—Vick Endorses Horse Fighting U1300--CIS Hedge Hogs U1200—Chessaholics 2 U1000-CIS Eagles Top NY-- DA Dynasty Top PA –Push and We'll Topalov Top VA—Seapower 2008 Top Canada—Sinclair Laird Prometheans Top CT New Britain Bad Bishops Top MD- Pillsbury Dough Boys Top Mass Cambridge Springers Top NC The I Pawns Top NJ Michael Khodarkovsky Tycoons Top Delaware—Dads & Sons Best Name—No Longer Searching for Bobby Fischer Best Chess Costume/Gimmick Dark Horses Individual Upsets Round 1 999 Pond, Emily Round 2 895 Thompson, William Round 3 911 Majid, Saira Round 4 598 Paredes, Alexis Round 5 887 Low, Timothy J Round 6 702 Fanning, John Top College Team—University Dallas Texas Top High School -King Krunchers Top Middle School---IS 318 Queens Top Elementary Dark Horses Top Scholastic--- Michael Khodarkovsky Dragons 2nd Scholastic---Real Gentlemen Would resign Mixed Doubles-- No Sleep Till Brooklyn Top Senior Team—Alter Clockers Top Company Team—Boeing Top Family—Kapengut Family Team Top Military—Sea Power 2008 Old Timers—Old Chestnuts Ethel Collins Perseverence==Collins Kids Bank St B Board 1 6-0 Scores: Mike Zlotnikov Hikaru Nakamura Leonid Sokolin Dave Gertler Board 2 Eugene Perelshteyn Joe Fang Yoges Raghunathan Matt Masino Jason Luchan Board 3 Roman Dzindhashvilli Greg Fernandez Joe Felber Board 4 Jared Defibbaugh Jose Esponsoa Steve Ferrero Mac Gomes Board 5 Rosas, Victor Lamonto, Samuel Samuels, Eric Alan |